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He earned international recognition two years ago as a personal trainer. But these days, John Sinclair (johnsinclair.ca) sees himself as more of a coach.

“You’re a life coach,” he says by phone from South Florida. “You’re basically coaching people in their habits and their behaviours.”

Sinclair, 37, was one of 10 finalists in 2012 for the title of “Personal Trainer to Watch,” as part of an annual contest — run by U.S.-based commercial fitness equipment manufacturer Life Fitness — designed to honour the best and brightest personal trainers on the planet.

The list of finalists, which included trainers from the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia, was culled from nearly 1,000 nominees.

Sinclair was working for World Health Edmonton at the time.

The native of Lucky Lake, Sask., has since joined the Midtown Athletic Club in Weston, Fla., where he’s serving as master performance coach/fitness director and hoping to help further push the evolution of personal training.

As Sinclair has come to realize, there’s already a lot more to “personal training” than exercise.

“If it was just about exercise, no one would need a trainer because there’s so much information out there,” explains the former athletic therapist who puts the “personal” in personal training.

“We’re actually in the people business. We’re not in the exercise business. This is about building relationships and that’s what coaching is all about is being able to build a relationship and being able to enhance that relationship through exercise and through being a good friend to people that value you, that spend a lot of time with you.”